1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a body for an electronic stringed instrument. More specifically, the present invention relates to a body for an electric guitar having an inner metal chassis around which a removable outer body shell is secured.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Electric guitars have been known at least as early as the late thirties. At that time, conventional wooden acoustic guitars were provided with magnetic pickups under the strings. When an electric guitar is strummed, the vibration of the steel strings within the magnetic field of the pickups causes an electrical output which is sent to an amplifier for transduction to the room with the use of loud speakers. In approximately the late forties, solid body electric guitars were introduced. A solid wooden body replaced the hollow wooden box of the acoustic guitar. The solid body of the guitar was provided with small cavities sized to receive the pickups. The provision of a solid body electric guitar was made possible because the body of the guitar was no longer required to provide sufficient audio output. Rather, the movement of the strings within the magnetic field of the pickups was used to create an electronic output.
Except for the shape of solid body guitars and the fact that various manufacturers are today routing out larger cavities from the body of the guitar to receive signal processors and the like, solid body guitars have not changed significantly since their introduction.
Guitar strings are strung between a nut and a saddle. The nut is located at the very top of the neck. It has grooves filed into it through which the strings pass. These grooves secure the strings as they pass off the fretboard to the tuning machine heads. The nut has traditionally been made of ivory or hardwood. The intent in using some very hard material is to reduce the tendency for the nut to absorb vibration: the harder the material the more transmission of the vibrations to the neck. The seventies saw brass as the vogue material for nuts. Currently graphite is probably the favorite.
The saddle has, for electric guitars, been either hardwood or metal.
The big change in the seventies was to make the neck out of metal. The Travis Bean guitar took the concept to the logical limit of mounting a metal nut and saddle into a metal piece which passed from the saddle through the body neck creating an all metal chain of vibrating componentry. One end of each string is secured under the metal saddle in the metal body portion to the casting, it passes over a metal saddle and to a metal nut which is mounted into a metal neck. In effect, what is created is a metal bow (in a "bow and arrow" sense) with metal strings. The body of the guitar was superfluous to the structure or sound. The Travis Bean guitar is disliked because it is expensive, very heavy (20-25 lbs.), and requires a casting almost three feet long.
A middle ground was tried by Kramer. He bolted a metal neck to a standard solid wood body. It was supposed to provide the same attempt to increase sustain in a less costly, lighter format. The Kramer guitar is still heavy and it still requires a relatively large casting.
In addition to the main problem of an unacceptable increase in weight with the use of metal necks, such necks also have a tendency to become uncomfortable when they get cold. Still further, there is a tendency for the fretboard to separate from the neck given the differential in the coefficients of expansion and contraction between the metal of the neck and the wood of the fretboard.
In recent years, the technology relating to electric guitars has tended to relate the processing of the output of the pickups. Guitars based on synthesizers and microprocessor control of effects devices have now become commercially acceptable and, in some instances, are provided as bolt-on additions to the solid body electric.
Additionally, guitar synthesizers made entirely from plastics in a shape vaguely resembling a guitar are now commercially available. Most of these synthesizers, however, do not depend on tuned steel springs for output. Rather, they create sound in a manner similar to an electronic keyboard.
One manufacturer has replaced the wooden box of the traditional acoustic guitar by providing a parabolic plastic shell in place of wooden back and sides. This type of guitar is available with either a wooden or plastic top. As with traditional acoustic guitars, the strings terminate on the bridge located on the middle of the top sounding board of the guitar. Accordingly, with this type of guitar, the top of the body acts not only as a vibrating component, but also as a structural component. In this type of guitar, the pickups are in the form of crystals placed in the bridge.
There remains, therefore, a need for a body for an electronic stringed instrument which takes advantage of the superior resonant qualities of metal. There remains a further need for such a body which provides sufficient space for additional electronic components and which allows for the replacement of existing electronic components provided within the body.
Still further, there remains a need for a body for an electronic stringed instrument which allows for a replaceable outer body shell so that various outer shell shapes may be utilized on a single stringed instrument.